Friends, family recall legendary fighter pilot

Retired Air Force Col. Ralph Parr, a resident of New Braunfels for the past 22 years, is one of the most decorated aviators in American history. He flew fighter planes in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He acquired his love of flying from his father, a Navy pilot. He said he will spend Memorial Day with his family and that he remembers fallen comrades throughout the year.

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Retired Air Force Col. Ralph Parr flew his F-86 aircraft near Seoul just after the end of the Korean conflict. During the latter part of the war, he shot down 10 aircraft in 30 missions.

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NBR TC22MEMORIAL Col. Ralph Parr, a resident of New Braunfels for the past 22 years, is one of the most decorated aviators in American History. He flew fighter plans in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Photo by Karen Adler, staff

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Ralph Parr is a Korean War ace. He is seen Friday, July 25, 2003, at the Officers Club at Randolph Air Force Base. He laughs with Carole Thompson (left), a fellow member of the "River Rats" -- the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association -- and friend Mary Reynolds during a party thrown in his honor. The party comes at an appropriate moment -- the 50th
anniversary of the end of the Korean War is this weekend. (KAREN L. SHAW/STAFF)

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Ralph Parr (center) is a Korean War ace. He is seen Friday, July 25, 2003, at the Officers Club at Randolph AFB where a party was thrown in his honor and attendees were encouraged to ask him to tell "old war stories."

Photo By KAREN L. SHAW/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Ralph Parr (left)is a Korean War ace. He is seen Friday, July 25, 2003, at the Officers Club at Randolph Air Force Base during a party thrown in his honor. He says good-bye to Capt. Doyle Pompa (right) and Major Geoff Laing (rear), who both thanked him for his example. (KAREN L. SHAW/STAFF)

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Friends, relatives and the Air Force paid tribute Monday to a legendary combat aviator known for being as kind and gentle in person as he was fierce in a jet fighter.

Retired Col. Ralph S. Parr, who died of cancer Dec. 7, was eulogized in a service at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph's base theater as a gutsy pilot whose humble demeanor helped save lives but may have cost him a Medal of Honor. A stepson, Paul McLaughlin, said Parr should have received the nation's highest military honor for valor for his actions at the Battle of Khe Sanh in Vietnam in 1968. Parr rebuffed McLaughlin's pleas to give testimony when his name was resubmitted for the medal years later.

“He gave me 'the colonel look,'” as Parr would do when he disapproved, and said, “I'm good,” McLaughlin recalled.

Parr, 88, flew 641 combat missions in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, and received more than 60 decorations, including a Silver Star, Bronze Star, 10 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 41 Air Medals, according to the Air Force. He is the only U.S. pilot to have received the Distinguished Service Cross and the citation that replaced it in 1960, the Air Force Cross, one of the nation's highest honors for bravery.

Parr, a longtime New Braunfels resident, was a double ace, having destroyed 10 enemy aircraft during the last seven weeks of the Korean War. He often was outnumbered by the enemy in his F-86 Sabre.

In Vietnam, he was awarded the Air Force Cross for protecting a supply route to Khe Sanh, destroying mortar and heavy-caliber weapon positions in spite of battle damage to his F-4C Phantom II. A granddaughter, Misty McLaughlin, spoke of the “Granddaddy Ralph” that few people knew — a tender, sentimental soul who sent her a single red rose for her 16th birthday and had an uncanny way of connecting with dogs.

“And yet he was never the loudest voice in the room. He didn't have to be,” she told 300-400 people at the funeral.

After the service, Col. Gerald Goodfellow, commander of Randolph's 12th Flying Training Wing, said Parr was a great example for today's airmen after he retired in 1976. Randolph's officers' club is named for him.

“He was a great man of his generation. America needs men like that,” Goodfellow said.

Parr's burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery included a missing-man formation fly-by of T-38s from Randolph.